Gingerbread Man Cookies

No cookie says Christmas more than a gingerbread man cookie! It’s been thirty years since I last made gingerbread men, and it took all weekend to get this recipe right.

After starting with a truly terrible recipe from a 1974 edition of the Joy of Cooking (1/4 cup of butter for 3 1/2 cups of flour? – had to throw the whole batch out), I experimented until I came up with this recipe, which makes some rather tasty cookies.

My guess is that the Joy cookie was originally developed to be a tree ornament, not something you’d want to eat. These cookies on the other hand are a joy to eat. They’re deeply flavored with spices and molasses as a good gingerbread should be, and sweet enough to be a proper cookie. I baked them so they are more tender than crispy. If you want a little snap to them, just cook them a bit longer.

After running around to several stores looking for the perfect gingerbread man cookie cutter, and getting nowhere, I created my own stencils (see links below). To use them, print them out and fold them in half lengthwise to make it easy to cut along the lines (don’t worry if the lines don’t perfectly match up, I drew them freehand.) Place the stencil over the rolled-out dough and use a small sharp knife to cut along the inside of the stencil.

Gingerbread Man Cookies Recipe

Ingredients

Cookies

• 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 Tbsp ground ginger
• 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter (room temperature, softened)
• 1/2 cup dark-brown sugar, packed
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup unsulfured molasses
• Optional for decorating: raisins, currants, chocolate chips, candy pieces, frosting

Royal Icing

• 1 egg white
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 3/4 cup confectioners sugar (powdered sugar)

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